When The Hero Of The Story Is A Four-Legged, Furry Male – Blind Faith by N.R. Walker

But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Like a feel good book that leaves you with a severe case of the warm fuzzies? Yeah, me too, and N.R. Walker’s Blind Faith is definitely one of them.

This is the incredibly sweet and sometimes poignant story of a man, Isaac Brannigan, who was blinded in an automobile accident when he was just eight years old. Isaac has managed to adapt well to the life he knows, but he’s also a man whose life has adapted him into a person who has insulated and isolated himself from anything that might resemble a deep emotional attachment to anyone but his sister because, for Isaac, loving simply isn’t worth the inevitability of losing.

Blind Faith is the story of a dog, Brady, a canine companion that’s brilliant and loving, but, sadly, is also underappreciated. Brady is very well cared for, it’s not that Isaac neglects or abuses his dog in any way, it’s that he refuses to form any sort of emotional attachment to Brady; the dog is merely the eyes Isaac needs when he’s out in the world, but to call Brady a true companion would be overstating their relationship. That doesn’t at all mean, however, that Brady hasn’t bonded with his moody and enigmatic master, and it’s the loyalty and bravery of a dog who gives everything and demands nothing that eventually teaches his owner a little bit about unconditional love.

When new vet in town, Dr. Carter Reece, begins making his weekly house calls to check in on Brady, he immediately intuits that there’s something off about Isaac and his relationship with the dog. As the two men begin to draw closer together, or at least as close as Isaac will allow before he pushes Carter away, it becomes clear that the one deal breaker on the bumpy road to romance may very well be the dog that Carter comes to love and admire and respect as much as, if not more than, anyone he’s ever met. To see Brady cared for but not overtly appreciated confounds Carter almost as much as the dog’s owner does. When Carter finally decides to confront Isaac about it, that confrontation is the turning point in their relationship, for better and for worse.

There really wasn’t a lot not to like about this story, especially if you’re an animal lover and/or a lover of stories that get straight to the heart of the matter without torturing you too badly to get there, and the heart of this matter is that sometimes blindness goes far beyond a man’s inability to see. That message is wrapped up and delivered by two men I was really rooting for, a sister I loved for not letting her brother get away with anything, and a four legged furry critter who really stole the show.